1	Teaching Vocabulary in the Media Center Best Practices and Strategies
2	In Effective Vocabulary Instruction; Wide reading is encouraged, Students are exposed to high-quality oral language, Word consciousness is promoted. Explicit instruction on specific words is provided, & Modeling and instruction in independent word learning strategies is provided.
3	Encourage Wide Reading Provide book talks, do storytelling, Sunshine State, AR & RC, do book lists, make recommendations, create incentives, bring in authors, do programming.) Discuss books, (book clubs, informal discussions, discussion as part of lesson.) Use student input for purchasing books. Create a book blog for students. Feature books on morning announcements.
4	Expose Kids to High Quality Oral Language Read aloud to students, Do storytelling in the media center, Encourage students to read and tell stories, Provide audiobooks, and suggest they read along. Give your media aide a list of 50 different praise words to use with students.
5	Promote Word Consciousness Make it fun! Play with language, Use puns, riddles, rhymes, Hink-Pinks, crossword puzzles, find-a-words, jokes and anagrams. Read and discuss 2 versions of the same story, one rich in language and the other not. Discuss vivid descriptions and interesting words in books when you read them aloud.
6	Promote Word Consciousness (continued) Discuss standard and non-standard English found in books in a non-judgmental way. Talk about similes and metaphors in books, Label everything, and create a word wall or word chart related to specific books. Feature a “Word of the Day” on morning announcements. Provide word games like Scrabble, etc.
7	Provide Explicit Instruction of Specific Words Involve students actively in word learning. Relate to known information. Have them generate examples and non-examples, antonyms and synonyms, etc. Use discussion to teach word meanings. Students pick up additional info from other students. Provide word search games and find-a-words related to specific books.
8	Explicit Instruction (continued) After reading a specific book list challenging words and discuss. Use a specific vocabulary strategy as part of your media lesson. Go to http://www.sbac.edu/~media/vocabulary.htm for word lists and strategies.
9	Modeling and instruction in independent word learning strategies is provided. Teach students to use the dictionary, break words into parts to decode them, (prefixes, suffixes, root words), and look for context clues to a word’s meaning. Encourage students to ask what a word means if it is unfamiliar, Media Specialists and aides should also use words you want the students to learn.
10	Modeling and Instruction (continued) Provide bookmarks students can use to record unfamiliar words on as they read. Discuss words they put on their bookmarks.
11	For More Info Go to http://www.sbac.edu/~media/vocabulary.htm